Glossary · Case & Dial
Miniature painting in enamel
Small-scale painted images fused onto an enamel support through firing.
Explanation
In the V&A account of seventeenth-century watchcases, improved painted-enamel techniques permitted a wider range of colours and detailed images rivaling oil paintings. Metal oxides were applied over a fired enamel ground and fused by successive firing. Mythological scenes, allegories, landscapes and portraits can appear on a single watch, including normally concealed interiors. Subject identification should remain qualified where it is an interpretation. Naming Jean Toutin as a key historical figure does not attribute every unsigned case to him.
Sources & references
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.